Whatever Maurice Jones-Drew and Justin Blackmon were doing Friday night during their continued holdout from Jaguars' training camp, they missed a pretty good show.

Yes, without the franchise running back and first-round draft pick in uniform, the first-team offense actually functioned at a respectable level during the Jaguars' annual scrimmage at EverBank Field before an estimated crowd of 15,000.

Starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert and Jones-Drew's temporary replacement, Rashad Jennings, stole the show, which is an encouraging sign after a first week of training camp plagued by offensive inconsistency. Gabbert was 10 of 13 for 91 yards and one touchdown. Then in red-zone situations later in the scrimmage, the offense scored five consecutive touchdowns with Gabbert at the helm.

Though many of Gabbert's completions were on checkdown passes, coach Mike Mularkey didn't mind a bit because the offense picked up yardage without the quarterback forcing throws into tight coverage.

"We tell you to take what the defense gives you," Mularkey said. "You saw what happens if you can get the ball down to the backs. They can make plays for you, they keep drives going. If we have to do that all the way down to score a touchdown, we'll do it every time."

Jennings accounted for 57 of the team's 70 yards on the night's first scoring drive (3 catches, 37 yards and 4 carries for 20 yards), then later scored twice in goal-line situations.

"In order to be a great running back, you have to be good in all phases -- protect the quarterback, catch passes," Jennings said. "My objective is to get better every single day."

When asked if he felt like a starter, he replied: "I feel like I'm a contributor to this football team."

Gabbert had his most consistent showing of the preseason. He made good reads and was rarely off the mark. He did miss tight end Marcedes Lewis in the end zone, but it was a small window with safety Courtney Greene right behind him near the sideline.

"Yeah, I missed [Lewis] by like three inches, maybe two, but it was one of those throws where you can't leave it inside," Gabbert said.

Other noteworthy items from the scrimmage included:

* A total of seven dropped passes, most of them when backup quarterback Chad Henne was on the field. Tight end Colin Cloherty had two drops, saying: "I just didn't look it all the way in. One mistake became two. After that, I played better and had a special-teams tackle."

* Rookie defensive end Andre Branch, a second-round draft pick, continued to impress with a quarterback sack and stuffing running back DuJuan Harris twice in goal-line situations. "He was stout in goal-line defense," said defensive line coach Joe Cullen. Branch has surprised the coaching staff by being better than they initially thought against the run.

* Placekicker Josh Scobee made his first four field goal attempts from 33, 38, 33 and 48 yards, then went 0-for-3 from 53, 53 and 58 yards. He said he stepped in a divot on the first miss that went wide left. His last attempt from 58 came up woefully short, but holder Bryan Anger put the ball down with the laces facing Scobee.

* Two of Gabbert's three incompletions were the result of good plays by the secondary. Cornerback Derek Cox created just enough havoc around Cecil Shorts as the ball went off the receiver's hands on the opening drive. Prior to a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Zach Miller, a play-action rollout pass for Shorts from 17 yards out was broken up at the last second in the end zone by Dawan Landry.

Respectable may get you to 8 - 8 at best. The Jags need both of these players in camp. There is no getting around it. People keep forgetting this team was 5 - 11 last year. A team that was that bad does not mean you can come into the season without your best player and first rd draft pick and be ok.

Gene's fantastic roster produced the worst starting QB in the NFL last year, and the guy ahead of him was probably as bad. Great planning Gene. Now, with that same QB taking all the 1st team snaps, are you going to tell me RJ won't get 350 carries? If he doesn't get 350 carries, who is splitting them with him? The punter pick was for a reason: we don't expect to be in FG range, know our issues at QB, and it will help our defense(which are the majority of GS's Draft picks). MJD knows all of this and wants some money to do what he did last year, carry the team!